A Whole School Approach Letters and Sounds at

Who? Years 1-6 What? Phonics following the Letters and Sounds Programme When? Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 9:10-9:30 Where? Sarah / Iris ChrissyLizKayJonathanTrishaDawn LionsNurture Room PanthersGroup Room LeopardsConservatoryHall

What do the children learn from specific phonics teaching? grapheme/phoneme (letter/sound) correspondences (the alphabetic principle) to apply the highly important skill of blending phonemes, in order, all through a word to read it to apply the skills of segmenting words into their constituent phonemes to spell blending and segmenting are reversible processes.

We need to all make sure that we are: Following a consistent, clearly defined, incremental sequence; Planning phonic sessions that are fun, pacey, colourful and multisensory. Assessing frequently so that our sessions match the children’s needs.

The Letters and Sounds Document The Letters and Sounds Document Is a six-phase teaching programme. Gives us activities and games we can play with the children to develop blending and segmenting Suggests the timetable in which we teach the phonemes and tricky However does not provide a more detailed, daily plan of discrete teaching.

Start to think in Phases!

Progression Intended Year GroupPhonic ContentTricky Words Phase 2F (6 weeks) 19 phonemes: set 1: s a t p set 2: i n m d set 3: g o c k set 4: ck e u r set 5: h b f/ff l/ll ss VC CVC continue oral blending and segmenting 2 syllable words Read: The, to I no go into Phase 3F (12 weeks) set 6: j v w x set 7: y z/zz qu (i) ch sh th ng (ii) ai ee igh oa oo (iii) ar or ur oi ear air ure er ow CVC complex letter names 2 syllable words Read: he, she, we, me, be, was, my, you, her, they, all, are Spell: the, to, I, no, go, into Phase 4F (6 weeks) adjacent consonants 2 / 3 syllable words Read: some, one, said, come, do, so, were, when, have, there, out, like, little, what Spell: he, she, we, me, be, was, my, you, her, they, all, are Phase 5Y1 wh ph split digraph ‘e’ ay ea ie oe ew ue au aw ou oy ir ey alternative spellings of phonemes read and spell fully decodable high frequency words on 100 list Read: oh, their, people, Mr., Mrs., looked, called, asked, could (The pupil should be able to read irregular high frequency words on 100 list and spell most of these) Phase 6 Y2 apply phonic skills past tense suffixes longer words spelling rules Read and spell irregular high frequency words on further 200 list, as needed

The order of phases Phase 1 has been taught through the children’s foundation year (preschool) Phase 2 my suggestion is that all TAs start at this point. It will cover letters that they already know but put a bigger emphasis on the blending and segmenting. Phase 4 (a) adjacent consonants and Phase 2 vowels e.g. gran Phase 3 Phase 4 (b) adjacent consonants and Phase 3 vowels e.g. grain Phase 5

Starting Point (discuss) My suggestion is to all start at phase 2. It should take 5 weeks, however, might be too basic for Year 3 onwards? YOU WILL FIND that many of the children will need very little teaching of the sounds that the phoneme make (grapheme/phoneme correspondence GPC) but lots of practical teaching and games the develop the segmenting and blending. What do people think? Phase 2 or 4a?

Different sections of a phonics session Introduction: Objectives and criteria for success (oral) Revisit and Review: Practise previously learned letters Practise oral blending and segmentation Teach: Teach a new letter Teach blending and/or segmentation with letters Teach one or two ‘tricky’ words Practise: Practise reading and/or spelling words with the new letter Apply: Read or write a caption (with the teacher) using one or more high frequency words and words containing the new letter

Managing resources TAs will have time on a Monday morning to collect and organise resources for the week. Laptops – Enough for all groups to have a set. Detailed list of locations given out!

Our Phonics Boxes Each TA will have their own phonics box Inside each box there will be: A set of plans for Phase 2-4 A outline of resources needed for each game and where they can be found. Assessment sheets Daily record sheets Magnetic boards Set of board pens Magnetic letters Alphabet chart (phase 3) Phases 2 and 3 phonemes (flashcards) All decodable and tricky words for Phases 2-4 Yes / no questions and captions / sentences for Phases 2-4 What’s in the Box? resources for Phase 4

Websites for Printable Resources (but r, s, b?) – cursive phoneme sheets

Websites for interactive games

Do we have fans? Some of the planning refers to phonic fans either we make some up (I have the master) or use pieces of paper with the letters on instead. (Doesn’t have to be glamorous)

My Planning Phase 2: Usually takes six weeks of five days I have crammed it into 5 weeks of 3 days. The ‘teaching sessions’ focus on the first 23 phonemes. This may not be needed, however, could be used as a recap to ensure the children know exactly how to pronounce the sound (h)

Phase 4a: ‘ Slipped it in’ before phase 3 Only two week plan Based on reading and spelling of adjacent consonants CVCC words (help) CCVC words (frog) CCVCC words (stand) look at DVD These are only using phase 2 graphemes. This made up ‘4a’ will not include tricky words.

Phase 3 Alphabet song introduced. Children need to know and be able to differentiate between the alphabet names and the actual sounds that the letters make in order to learn digraphs I have included one laptop session each week in the ‘practice’ section Tried to make the activities varied

Weeks 1-11 are introducing all of the digraphs and trigraphs Weeks 12 onwards are consolidation, revisiting, games to practice I have occasionally referred to the L&S document rather than type the methods of a game in the planning, if I have forgotten to put the reference, it will be in the document

Phase 4b Exactly same format as Phase 4a but with words containing phase 3 phonemes.

How to follow the plans Annotate your own plans accordingly. If you run out of time, note it down and adjust plans (can you be creative and squeeze a bit into to revisit the next day?) The planning is flexible in terms of the ‘practice’ section of each session. So long as the ‘teach’ sections are taught in the planned order, the games can be swapped around – just check the words that you are using have been covered.

Assessment Assessment sheets for each Phase – found on staff drive These are to see where children are exactly Suggestion: maybe assess 1:1 when other are on the laptops? Keep in a folder in the box.

Daily Record Please fill out a daily log at the end of the phonic session. Keep it simple! Jot down: If anyone needed extra support What they had trouble with Maybe a tick or smiley face for those who understood the session? No need to write down coverage as this is outlined in the planning. At the end of week, staple to the back of planning and keep in a folder in the box.

Reviewing Nothing is set in stone! However, it will be difficult to slot new children into the groups and also for children to ‘come in’ to a group due to our very progressive planning. Therefore I suggest that at the end of a term, TAs review the work with their teacher and discuss any issues.